Book Reviews
| Published date | 01 March 2001 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8543.00193 |
| Date | 01 March 2001 |
BOOK REVIEWS
Employment Relations in Britain: 25 years of the Advisory Conciliation and
Arbitration services, edited by Brian Towers & William Brown. Blackwell,
Oxford, 2000, ISBN 0-631 223266, £14.99.
This book is noteworthy for a number of reasons, all of them good. First, it marks
the 25th anniversary of ACAS in 1999, celebrated by a conference at Templeton
College Oxford. The conference papers have been adapted and extended to comprise
the core of this publication. Second, the contributions not only look back over the
history of ACAS but also consider the future agenda with which it will have to deal.
Third, it is edited by William Brown, representing the British Journal of Industrial
Relations and the ACAS Council and Brian Towers, of the Industrial Relations
Journal, marking it as the first occasion. on which the two leading British-based
academic journals of industrial relations have united in a joint publication.
In many ways, one of the most remarkable features of the book is that it has come
to be written at all. ACAS, at its birth in 1974, was established by a Labour Govern-
ment, in a period when tripartite bodies were common, and at a time when industrial
relations was still very much in the `traditional' mode, with union membership and
collective bargaining coverage close to their peaks. Within less than a decade, we
were in the throes of a major system transition, in which both the economic
management apparatus and the industrial relations institutional framework were
dramatically changed. Tripartism was out of fashion, industrial relations was a
highly charged political arena and collectivism was being replaced by a much more
individualised approach to employment relations. That ACAS has survived this
period of turmoil and change, and still plays a major role in the contemporary system
Ð if somewhat amended in balance Ð is a tribute to those who have guided the
organisation through difficult waters and to the resilience of its staff and structures.
The book is in the form of a sandwich. The two outside `slices' are chapters by
Bill Hawes who charts the course of ACAS development and internal resource
allocation against the changing political, legal and economic background; and by
Brian Towers, who reflects at a more general level on the implications of the changes
in the external environment for the pattern of ACAS activity and its future
development, picking up a number of key issues in the intervening chapters. Hawes'
chapter is particularly valuable in giving an quantitative overview of the trends in
ACAS activities over the quarter century, and in reminding us of the very different
phases through which ACAS has survived: the period of the 70s under Jim
British Journal of Industrial Relations
39:1 March 2001 0007±1080 pp. 139±161
#Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 2001. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd,
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Mortimer's chairmanship, when the mission was essentially reform; the 1980s, when
Pat Lowry had to adjust to budget cuts, a purely voluntarist approach to union
recognition and a concentration on more conventional core functions; the phase
under Douglas Smith and John Hougham which was essentially reactive, defensive
and cautious, at least until 1997, when scope for a more pro-active approach re-
emerged.
The `filling' in the sandwich is made up of six chapters, dealing with the key
functional areas of ACAS. John Goodman tackles the collective conciliation and
arbitration area, reminding us that public intervention in disputes has a long-
standing history and that at the time of ACAS's establishment, there was dissatis-
faction with the State's involvement (or refusal to become involved) in disputes
during periods of incomes policy. Critical to ACAS's credibility in intervention
was its independence from Government, a position that was quickly determined by
ACAS Council and remained effectively unchanged down to the present. The volume
of both collective conciliation and voluntary arbitration have fallen dramatically in
recent times, but there is consistent evidence both that the public image of ACAS has
been favourably established by its ready accessibility in collective disputes and a high
degree of participant satisfaction with the way problems have been handled.
Despite the continuing importance of ACAS's work in this area, it is in the
individual conciliation branch of activity that there have been significant changes
in the level of business, the development of innovatory approaches and the continu-
ing challenge of current developments for future workload. It is perhaps the two
chapters on this that will provide the greatest interest for readers, and deservedly so.
Linda Dickens, through much of her own research, has helped to shape thinking on
the delivery of effective and efficient justice through this mechanism. In her chapter,
she reviews the changing case load and the ways in which the service has developed
means of dealing with it ± apparently effectively and with economy ± as the
legislation on individual employment rights has expanded over the last twenty years.
But Dickens remains concerned that the quality of the experience and of settlements
has suffered from the drive for efficiency (more cases, less resources), with potential
loss in trust and confidence, and limits on the ability of conciliators to penetrate
underlying issues. She argues that in employment rights cases, what is required is
a form of `committed conciliation', designed to achieve not just any settlement, but
one that promotes desired ends. That commitment concerns ACAS who see it as
potentially undermining their impartiality ± but the problem nevertheless remains.
Her thoughtful and critical discussion of these issues deserves wide attention.
Likewise, Gill Dix's contribution on what ACAS conciliators actually do in
individual employment rights issues sheds light on the operating styles of the ACAS
conciliators themselves ± as they see it. ACAS's experience over the years has enabled
the development of a better understanding of the style and approaches that are
available ± and of their effectiveness in different types of situation. This has not
so far been systematically described, an omission which Dix admirably remedies.
Her conceptual analysis, linked to the practical experience and observations of
the conciliation officers, provides excellent material for those wishing to develop
expertise in conciliation, not only in the employment area but in other fields of social
justice where the conciliation and mediation functions are increasingly used..
The remaining three chapters focus on different issues. Stephen Wood examines
the experience of ACAS in matters of union recognition, reviewing both the history
and lessons of statutory recognition in the early years and the much longer period of
conciliation for recognition, and looking forward through the 1999 Employment
140 British Journal of Industrial Relations
#Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 2001.
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